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Pier 17 at South Street Seaport by SHoP Architects

New York

For decades, New York’s South Street Seaport has been attempting a comeback. The historic neighborhood, which (from 1822 to 2005) was home to the Fulton Fish Market, and which boasts sweeping views of the Brooklyn Bridge and East River, has been the focus of numerous development schemes. The one that was built in 1985, Rouse Company’s Pier 17 Pavilion, was a “festival marketplace” designed by Benjamin Thompson & Associates, the architects of Rouse’s successful 1976 Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston. When it opened, to great fanfare, Pier 17 promised a retail and dining magnet that would attract locals as well as tourists—which it did for about five years, before it gradually devolved into an unremarkable indoor mall. Until its 2014 closing and subsequent demolition, the Rouse project had come to symbolize the chronic difficulty of making the neighborhood attractive both to visitors and the increasing numbers of those who have made Lower Manhattan their home.

Now a 21st-century rethink of Pier 17 is nearing completion for a summer opening, under the ownership of the Howard Hughes Corporation as part of its $785 million Seaport District redevelopment, which will ultimately include seven buildings on several city blocks housing hospitality, retail, entertainment, and cultural venues. The new Pier 17 was designed by SHoP Architects, the New York firm known for the Barclays Center arena in Brooklyn and the supertall residential tower, 111 West 57th Street, under construction in Manhattan. The 212,000-square-foot building will contain shops (including a branch of the Milanese fashion mecca 10 Corso Como), restaurants (by culinary stars like Jean-Georges Vongerichten and David Chang’s Momofuku Group), live broadcast studios for ESPN, and a 1½-acre roof for dining and public events. (The project’s landscape architect is James Corner Field Operations.)

Events

May qualify for learning hours through most Canadian architectural associations

Concrete is a rather ubiquitous, tested, proven, and versatile building material. It has been used for literally thousands of years to create long-lasting man-made structures of all types, including buildings. Architects in the past few centuries have found it to be an appealing choice to express dynamic and vibrant designs in ways that other materials could not.

May qualify for learning hours through most Canadian architectural associations.

Population growth within American cities continues to skyrocket. Once empty downtowns in Rust Belt cities like Detroit, St. Louis and Buffalo are filling up; cities across North America like Tulsa, Philadelphia, and Ottawa, hoping to be the next Seattle, are wooing tech companies to bring their offices there.